The God's Gift
by high.fiving.jesus
Summary: Seven years after the fall of Kronos, Percy has been given a gift. Immortality. But we all know there's a downside to god-hood; especially with these new powers.
1. Prologue

**Summary: Seven years after the downfall of Kronos, Percy Jackson has been gifted… and cursed. Percabeth.**

I tried to wake up from the dream, honest. And if I could've I probably would've made myself realize what was happening. In my dream, Aphrodite the goddess of love was holding out a golden apple to Zeus and Poseidon. Zeus refused and said something to her that made her roll her eyes.

She tossed the apple to Poseidon and it seemed that before he could realize what was happening- the apple was in his hold. His eyes were wide with horror at the golden fruit. Zeus didn't seem sympathetic, but Aphrodite's expression made it seem like she had just realized what she had done.

She reached out to snatch the apple away but Zeus stopped her almost immediately. There was no obvious emotion on his face but in his eyes he seemed relieved. A cold silence ran through the room and there was a sudden chill on me. The apple melted away to a golden puddle in my father's hands.

Aphrodite closed her eyes as the liquid lifted from his hand and formed a floating bubble. All eyes were on the golden apple of late. The vision blurred for a moment and then a blinding light ruptured. Sounds of women crying in pain and screaming filled my ears. I tried to tune it out or make it stop but nothing changed. A rough voice cried out briefly. My ear drums were ringing from all the noises of suffering.

My dream shifted to Half-Blood Hill. A girl with dirty blonde curls was lugging a duffel bag behind her, past Thalia's tree. She was in an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and dark blue jeans. Night silence was ringing in my ears now, but the screams were a constant faint drone in the background. I seemed to focus in on the girl and her grey eyes cast a glance at the stars. It was Annabeth. She was back at camp after three years of staying in the mortal world for college.

I hadn't seen her in three years and she was finally back at camp. I wanted to feel nothing towards her arrival, but this was Annabeth. My first love and all that mushy stuff. And it was true. I was ecstatic towards her arrival. Even my dream self was giddy. Like a school girl.

I heard someone calling my name and there was a rough hand on my shoulder. I woke up to Grover bleating in my ear, "Peerrrccyy!" Grover immediately pulled his hand away from me.

"What's wrong?"

"Uh… nothing. Just a splinter." He shook his hand and backed away from my bunk as I got up. "Guess who's here!" he tried to hide his smile. I knew he was just trying to be sensitive, but it wasn't working. We were both excited.

I smiled and urged Grover out of the cabin with me. We walked past the strawberry fields where a few early birds were at work picking the strawberries. Two satyrs were blowing on their reed pipes and the strawberries were thriving and dancing in the dawn wind. Grover trotted ahead to the Big House, but something held me back. I realized that I didn't want to catch up with Annabeth yet. I was worried about something.

Regardless, my feet kept going all the way up the steps and across the porch. I entered the blue and white house and found Chiron sitting in his wheelchair next to Grover. Annabeth sat with her back to me but she had stopped talking abruptly, like she sensed I was here.

She turned around and I met her grey eyes, "Percy." She said.

"Annabeth."

Grover and Chiron glanced at each other awkwardly and Chiron cleared his throat, "Yes, well, my dear, you may join your cabin if you'd like. I would prefer to speak with Percy alone." Grover bleated but followed Annabeth out.

I sat down in front of Chiron, "Where's Mr. D?"

Chiron sighed nonchalantly and said: "He decided that he deserved a break. He's somewhere in the back of the house. So, Percy, would you care to tell me why your father paid the camp a visit this morning?" I must've looked extremely confused. Chiron nodded, "He said something about a _golden apple_?"

My heart froze in my chest. After thinking about what he had said I started hearing the screams from my dream. A woman cried out in pain and an image of a man appeared in my head. He was clearly passing away. "I don't know."

"Well, if you have any idea you'll tell me?" he looked up at me and tossed his graying hair away from his face. I nodded. I knew he was trying to hold back something, but he obviously couldn't. "Percy… Tell me about your dream." I was taken aback by his knowledge. I mean, I knew Chiron knew a lot, but it was like he could predict the future or something.

I glanced around and I wasn't sure how Chiron would interpret the dream. I reluctantly told him and his face paled slightly. He stood up from his wheelchair, one white hoof after the other, until he towered over me. He trotted over to the front door, "Percy. There has been talk of a new god. A… replacement for the great god Pan."

"Yeah, that's Grover. The Chosen One of Pan." I nodded.

"Not exactly. Grover _is_ in charge of the Wild as you said, but he's not immortal. It's about balance, Percy. One of Aphrodite's golden apples was used for the transfer of the gift. We have reason to believe that _you_ were the chosen one." He said calmly. I always wondered how Chiron could be so light-hearted and cheerful.

"Wait," I said, "How? Chosen for what?"

I could tell that Chiron was getting frustrated, but the whole thing was too much for any demigod to handle. He sighed and said, "Percy, your father took the apple. You haven't fully adjusted to the form; you don't have your full powers."

"So, if I _am_ a god, then what is my domain? Do I have any special power?"

"No one will know until you have your full powers. And Percy," he pursed his lips, "it's gonna hurt. Bad."

**It will get better if you review. :)**


	2. I feel my past

I walked around the campgrounds, relieved that word hadn't gotten out. I was already an 'important' figure, and becoming a god would only make it worse. Not that anyone would treat me any differently. I would probably get the power of unicorns or forest elves and lollipops. Either way, I wouldn't be able to scare a hellhound, let alone a demigod.

I kicked dried leaves across the ground with my hands in my pockets, fingering Riptide. The Celestial Bronze felt lighter in my pocket, like it wasn't really there. And I had to keep a hand on it to remind myself that it was. I wandered passed the strawberry fields and down to the beach.

I wondered if the water still had any effect on me. I waded around and smiled. I was still dry. A small blue fish brushed against my leg and skidded away. It squirmed and twisted like it was being cut up from the inside- out. I bent down and cupped my hands around the fish. When it brushed me again it immediately lengthened and swam around my palms like nothing had happened.

I let it go, wondering if some poison was in the water or something dangerous that would make a fish a retard. It swam through the water, pecking at coral, and ignoring me. A school of fish avoided me completely when they passed by.

"Percy," someone called out from behind me, "Come here!" I turned to see Clarisse and two of her buddies.

I would've much rather had piranhas bite my tongue then follow Clarisse anywhere, except for battle. I found my legs moving up the beach without my consent. Her sister leaned over her shoulder and whispered in her ear. Clarisse snickered and tried to high-five her without me noticing. That obviously didn't work, considering I saw it.

"Hurry up, Jackson, I don't have all day," she said agitatedly. When I made it up to the trio, Clarisse dropped her arm around my shoulders, "So, what's up?" She smiled, practically pulling me down towards the rest of the camp. The pavilion came into view; a perfect meeting place.

I stared at her, not really wanting to say anything. It's not that I don't trust- never mind. I _don't_ trust Clarisse. That's why I didn't want to go anywhere with her. "Nothing… you?" I asked wearily. She shrugged and released me. She ran up the steps of the pavilion and faced the rest of the camp. Her hand snuck up to her mouth and she let out an ear-piercing whistle. I winced understandably.

Campers stopped their daily activities- including the ones on the climbing wall- and stared at Clarisse. She waved an arm, signaling that she wanted them to approach, shut up, and listen. The few campers on the climbing wall screamed at the sudden activation of lava and rushed to get off. I could already see their eyebrows singe. Everyone filed around me curiously and whispered to each other.

"We have a god at camp," Clarisse grinned evily. My heart instantly fell as I sunk into the crowd. I didn't want any more attention. The campers roared with excitement, fear, and fierce whispers. "His son's a god." The whispers immediately died. My heart started beating more evenly. I guessed that she was talking about a different god.

"It's Zeus!" A camper yelled out through the silence. Everyone turned to stare at him like he was stupid and he shrunk back quietly. I didn't think that was a bad idea. Dionysus is Zeus' son. It made sense to me.

"No, you moron," Clarisse growled, "I'll give you a hint: his name starts with a P." she grinned wickedly. I remember thinking bitterly about her at that moment. The only god whose name started with P was clearly Poseidon. If anyone didn't get it right, they were dumb.

Immediately, all eyes were on me. I felt them. Someone whispered something about how I didn't look like a god. Another mentioned Annabeth and that's what really caught my attention. I didn't dare look back at them because then I'd see their faces. Eyes were probably a major weakness for any normal mortal. Of course, demigods aren't normal mortals. And we're only half mortals.

I prayed that Annabeth hadn't been in that crowd. I thought of how she had looked when I had originally been offered immortality. Her face was red and blotchy, like she wanted to cry, and her eyes were glazed over with held back tears. The thought of her being sad tore at me.

"Bah-ha-ha," Grover bleated in my ear, "Why didn't you tell me? Wait until Annabeth finds out! Oh gods; this won't go well at all." He muttered to himself.

The sound of metal crushing stone broke through the thoughts and rising voices of the crowd. Clarisse scowled and bowed quickly, like it was the most painful thing to do for her. I could tell she was afraid though. I felt the ocean churning down at the shore and inside of me.

Poseidon was really here.

"Heroes!" Chiron called, towering over all of us. His tail twitched nervously and he adjusted his bow. "Back to your activities!" I waited for them to leave before turning to bow before my father. I could tell he was forcing a smile, and it wasn't exactly reassuring.

"Chiron, I would like to speak with my son alone." He looked at Chiron. Poseidon wore his khaki Bermuda shorts and a colorful palm tree shirt, like a tourist from Key West. He was like me, with black hair and sea green eyes, minus the fact that he has a beard. He gripped his triton like a child holding a balloon animal. Though it looked so much more powerful in his hands.

Chiron bowed his head and trotted towards the cabins. The air seemed to get tenser and… saltier after Chiron had left and I wasn't sure if that was my 'godly ability'- if I was a god of the water- or it was just my dad being in the ocean too long.

"I believe an apology is in order," Poseidon mumbled. He was probably ashamed for catching the apple, but I just figured that if he didn't then something terrible would've happened. I didn't want to know otherwise. "Percy, you don't _have _to forgive me. But I advise it." He smiled unsurely.

I guess I had to. But losing my mortal half kinda stunk. And then I was losing Annabeth, too. And all of my friends would pass on and fade. But I didn't want them to fade from my memory. All of my quests, my legacy, none of that would truly exist if I didn't die. Legacies are more of what you leave behind anyways. "Forgiven."

"Now," he said and rubbed his hands together, "How about some fishing? I have a feeling the tide will be just perfect." He laughed with a twinkle in his eye. I raced him down to the beach. I'll admit, it was odd messing around with a god, but my dad was so much cooler around me and less business-like. Not that he was ever really business-like. Poseidon's a wild card- you never know what you're going to get.

After an hour of _monstering_, Poseidon returned to Olympus like it was an everyday thing to sink into the ocean and actually ride on waves. Which it is for him.

Note: Fishing with Poseidon doesn't mean a rod and line and you try to catch yellow tail or mutton snapper. Calling it monstering makes more sense. It means trying to catch giant sea serpents, which are almost always too small. The fully grown serpents live at the bottom of the ocean, thriving off of hippocampi and their own young. Gross, right?

None of the campers were in their cabins, even with the sun setting, and I could already smell the barbecue and fruits. No matter how much I didn't want to go to the pavilion, if I didn't go then I'd look like a wimp. No god was a wimp. And the food was too tempting. I was honestly starving after actually talking to my father for more than a random burst of five minutes. I guess he figured that I'd have to get used to it. Talking to him was one highlight of becoming a god.

On the way to the pavilion, the trees seemed extremely still- which may sound stupid but there _are _spirits living in them- which was odd for flirtatious nymphs. I shrugged it off and ran passed the strawberry fields, where satyrs eyed me lazily. I knew I was late to dinner and all of the cabins had probably sat down already.

At the pavilion, the Athena table was sitting calmly, making notes or cracking small jokes. The Hermes table, slightly more obnoxious, was stealing from each other and laughing loudly. I thought of how Luke had been so unlike them near the end of his days. The Ares table was glowering at me, and Clarisse was scratching the marble table with a hunting knife.

The Hephaestus kids were all tinkering with metal or talking calmly, like the rest of the camp wasn't there. I finally made it to my table, and I have to say that it was the calmest of the bunch. Even next to the Artemis table where there was no one. Very few animals occasionally scurried across the empty benches but at my table no animal came near and there was no one to talk to.

I wished Tyson were there because no matter what I did he would treat me the same. I was just Percy Jackson, his half-brother, son of Poseidon, and soon-to-be god. In Tyson talk, he would call this 'average'.

Chiron pounded a hoof down on the marble floor and raised a goblet of soda. "Heroes!" he called over us. Everyone went silent, "Thank the gods. Let's eat!" He smiled. Wood nymphs ran from the trees, literally, carrying platters of fresh fruits, warm bread, and smoky barbecue. The food looked delicious. I was almost tempted to take a platter and just eat from it, but then I'd look like a pig and Annabeth would kill me. I sat it my seat, waiting for the food to reach me.

A nymph slowed by my table and smiled at me. She bowed gracefully and held the platter out to me. The other nymphs stopped by the tables and watched her. She was beautiful, honestly. Obviously a younger nature spirit, she was about thirteen in mortal years, with dark green eyes and fiery red hair. She held the elvish features like most nymphs and children of Hermes.

The other nature spirits glanced at their platters woven from branches and leaves and looked over at me again. They dropped the platters on the tables and ran over to me in a flurry of red, brown, and green. I almost screamed like a girl at the sudden attack. But I realized that they weren't attacking me, they surrounded me, stroking my hair and planting kisses on my cheeks.

"Ladies!" Chiron yelled. Grover pitched in, whistling and hollering at his nature spirits to back away from me. I want to say I was wise enough to tell them to leave me alone and to get them to do what they were supposed to, but a guy and pretty girls. You do the math.

I felt someone grab my ear and pull me off of my chair to follow them away from the crowd of girls. They frowned and whimpered for me to come back, which I wasn't used to coming from any girl. Including Annabeth.

Chiron stamped his hoof again and the nymphs shrunk back towards the woods, leaving the campers in a rowdy want for someone to pass the plate. Clarisse glared at me, picking small crumbs of marble out of the grooves of her knife. Grover shook his head at the girls and shooed them back to their trees. Chiron looked up at the sky impatiently.

"What was that?" Annabeth growled, not yet letting go of my ear.

"I don't know" I mumbled, tilting my head to the side. She glared at me and let her grip go.

"Do you know something I don't?"

"Probably not," I smiled. Annabeth wanted to be mad, I could tell, but she laughed anyways.

"Well, obviously. But that's not what I meant." She smiled, "What's going on with you? I mean, girls suddenly _like_ you? That's a first." She smirked. I wanted to get mad at her now, but if she really didn't know about the golden apple, then I didn't want to tell her. I couldn't get mad with the chance that her heart could get broken shortly after.

"I take that offensively!" I cried jokingly.

"You were supposed to, Seaweed Brain." She laughed and glanced back at the others. She suddenly got quiet. "I saw your dad here at camp." A lump formed in my throat, "Why?"

"Just a visit."

"Gods don't just visit their kids out-of-the-blue. There has to be a reason." She looked at me like she was trying to figure everything out about me, "What's the reason, Percy?"

"No reason," I lied. Annabeth narrowed her eyes, "I'll tell you later."

"Or you could tell me now." She chided with a small, mischievous smile.

"Later," I promised, "I'll tell you later."

Out of nowhere, there was a small tug in my gut. The waves lapped violently against the shore. Annabeth glanced at the water worriedly and then back at me with her arms crossed. The tug tightened sickeningly and there was a sharp pain; I kept myself from looking like I was really in pain, "What's wrong, Percy?"

"Nothing." I lied. My skin tingled and the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stuck up on end. My insides felt like they were being twisted and beat on with a wooden paddle. My limbs were suddenly made of molten lava.

"Percy, you're smoking." Annabeth said, with a blank expression. I glanced at my shirt sleeves but there was nothing wrong with them. "Percy!" Annabeth started swatting at my arms like she was trying to extinguish an imaginary fire.

"Annabeth, calm down," I backed away from her. I knew my voice was twisted with pain, and I knew she noticed, but I also knew this had something to do with Chiron's warning. He told me that my becoming a god wouldn't be easy. My body had to adjust.

"Percy, you're on _fire_! How can I calm down?" She cried, backing away from me like I was some sort of monster. She ran back towards the campers and -from the look on her face- she was about to cry. I cringed and struggled to follow her, but every move felt like gravity had been maximized by a thousand. My shoulders ached as if the sky was resting on them again. Hair fell in my face as it slowly faded from the original midnight black to a smoky storm-grey.

I felt a chill run through my spine. Every curse I had ever crossed paths with ran through me with a cold blast.

The Sirens songs of need made me try to surge towards Annabeth; Kronos slowed time and I moved like a fly trapped in molasses; The Lotus Casino's power wiped my mind clear of my thoughts of Annabeth and of the camp. Everything I had feared washed over me and wrapped around my brain. There was a random shiver thrown in occasionally.

Basically, all of my quests were being combined inside of me and there was nothing I could do about it.

Hooves crushed ground beneath them, but that was just a background noise now. "Grover, take Annabeth away from here. Now!" Chiron said. I could suddenly sense everything going on around me. I knew exactly what everyone was doing. Annabeth was trying to push Grover away from her. Clarisse shifted nervously and put her hand on the hilt of her sword. Juniper slipped into existence from her tree and covered her mouth. Other nymphs seeped from the trees. The Stoll brothers were pushing through a group of campers to watch me.

A heavy hand landed on my shoulder and for a second everything drained from me. My energy, my pain, and my fear- it all felt like it was being drained in a current directed by the hand. Everyone retracted from me like they were pushed by a force of Kronos, only none of their feet actually lifted off of the ground.

An image of Annabeth crying flashed in my mind before I blacked out.

**Sorry I haven't updated, but I 'lost' my laptop in the middle of writing this chapter. So, I'm sorry it seems rushed, but I wanted to get it out. Please review.**


	3. I want to carry them to Hades

**Suckish last chapter. I'll try and be better this time. You know, I had to listen to **_**Evanescence**_** just to write this chapter correctly. It's kinda sad in the beginning. I bet it'll be better if you listen to their song "Hello". Just saying.**

**Um, and, yeah, this and the next chapter won't be very long because they're filler/important chapters but they have little excitement I guess. It's confusing. Just take it for what it is.**

**I don't own, nor will I ever, Percy Jackson. This is disclaimer for the whole story. Fun…**

I was surrounded by darkness. There was no sound, no warmth. The temperature was like that of a meat locker, ice collecting on my shoulders and weighing on me like guilt or jealousy. My mouth felt dry, like I had stuck my tongue in some sand.

I took a step forward slowly, feeling the area around me to assure myself that I wouldn't fall off of some invisible cliff. Dry leaves crackled under foot and sent a shockwave of wickedness through the area. I walked forward hesitantly, trying to not crack the leaves so obnoxiously. Even when I stepped lightly the leaves cackled like old hags laughing at me.

I began pushing the leaves off to the side to stop the horrendous noise. I stepped again and the crunch was even louder than before when I was sure the leaves were there. An eerie feeling washed over me and I suddenly felt the warm humidity of being outside at night. A hoot sounded in my ear and I whirled around. Nothing was there.

Something growled behind me. I glanced over my shoulder at a void of empty space. It was like I was trapped in some horror movie. I felt Riptide grow heavy in my pocket. My Achilles spot tingled and burned fervently like I had ran into a hot metal pole in a blacksmith's shop.

Someone's snicker echoed and an ear piercing scream sliced the air clearly. An old man's image flooded my mind. I heard his last request as he whispered to an elderly woman at his side. He pushed the covers from his hospital bed and a short sigh escaped his lips.

The woman smiled sadly down at him and let a small tear roll down her cheek. She sweetly brushed his thin grey hair and stood from the seat, taking her purse with her. The image faded into nothing but a memory. The man's words floated through my mind.

_If I haven't stood up for something, then I haven't lived. May God have mercy on us, eh?_

I'm not sure how but I knew the man was a former Marine. He was so willing to sleep eternally. I knew he would earn Elysium. He had to. The woman, his wife, she seemed to understand his wishes. She let him go off to somewhere unfamiliar, as if he would live forever in paradise.

I cleared my mind and stepped forward. Wandering, I'm not sure how I did it, but I found a light shining down from the nothingness above me. I stepped into it curiously. A blast of wind nearly knocked me over.

A little girl was playing with a rag doll. She had caramel skin and no hair. A cancer patient. Her mother stood away from her, speaking with a nurse quietly. I listened to them.

_Ms. Donovan, I am so sorry... She won't make._

_How long?_

_Excuse—_

_How—long?_ The mother's voice was trembling with fear, sadness—I couldn't tell which.

The nurse looked at the ground quietly and stared at the girl in the bed. She was smiling as she waved the doll's arms. The girl was so innocent and carefree; it pained me to see her dying. _A week, two tops._

My heart shattered. I stared at the little girl and it appeared that I was in the room with her. I stumbled to her, nearly crying for her, and reached a hand out. A black mist emitted from my palm and wrapped around her. She breathed it in like nothing but oxygen was filling the room. I retreated as the girl started coughing. Her mother and the nurse ran over to her, trying to calm her down. The last thing I saw was the little doll drop to the floor at my feet.

I picked it up when the image faded. I inspected the small face. Black, empty eyes shimmered from the light above my head and it had golden curls. It was smiling and I cursed it, finding it evil that it could smile in the face of death. I realized that I was losing my mind. I cursed a doll. I called a doll evil.

I looked up, ignoring the doll. I unintentionally held on to it.

Thousands, maybe millions, of similar lights were twinkling down from the sky and I felt torn. All of these people were passing on to live in Hades' realm. What type of fate was that? No one even liked Hades, let alone wanted to live near him for the rest of eternity. I pitied Persephone.

I started to run towards the nearest light. I felt the urge to be there, to carry their souls as the passed from the living to the dead, but the lights shut out. They disappeared like someone had pulled a company power switch for 'quitting time'.

I felt broken at how many people I had failed to see.

My energy began to drain and my eyelids felt heavy. The last thing I saw was the light of the little girl still shining. When it went out, all care was freed from me.

Warmth began returning to me, sound was a common thing, pain was something I couldn't feel for now. I opened my eyes to the ceiling of the camp infirmary. Calming light flooded in from a window and I felt like I was at Montauk Beach. I sat up and instantly felt dizzy.

No one was there feeding me Ambrosia or Nectar this time. I was solely alone.

Footsteps pounded up the few steps of the infirmary and I laid back down. I'm sure why but it seemed right to lay like the few I had recently seen in my dream.

The person came near me and breathed heavily through their nose. "Percy, you need to wake up. We _need_ to talk," Annabeth whispered.

I tried to fight the urge but my eyes opened slowly and I stared at her. Her hair was matted and her grey eyes were brewing a deadly storm. She furrowed her brow like I had just risen from the dead and started tap dancing.

"We need to—" she started.

"I know."

I finally sat up and allowed her to sit next to me, which she did hesitantly. "I know I freaked out earlier," she said and I nodded, "but it was a rough day for me. And seeing someone on fire isn't something I'm used to. Sorry." Her voice was monotone, or close to it, like she had just calmed down and was holding back her whimpers.

"Annabeth, I wasn't on…" I stopped mid-sentence and decided to not argue about it. "I need to tell you something."

She looked me in the eye and studied my face, trying to find the truth before I said anything. She hated not knowing things.

**Um… yeah. So, review? **


	4. I just don't understand you

I sat awkwardly as she pulled her hair back behind her shoulders. Her eyes rested on mine intently and I felt the urge to come up with a lame excuse. It wasn't something I was best at, but I could probably get by with it. I could say I was playing with a match and—being clumsy as I am—it fumbled through my fingers and caught my arm on fire. But then I'd have to explain no burn marks at all.

Or I could tell her I—

"What is it, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth urged impatiently.

I opened my mouth to just spout out a lie, that would grow, but the words got mixed up and jumbled and I stuttered out a terrible sentence that would totally destroy any friendship we had. Maybe. "I had this dream."

I again opened my mouth to tell her about the dream with the golden apple, but something completely different popped out. I started explaining about the old man and his wife, the little girl with her doll, and the black smoke that came from my hand. I explained the feeling—cold and metallic; the feeling that also appeared on the battlefield and hung in the air during the war with the titans. She just watched me as I stopped and started, trying to think clearly.

She stood up abruptly, her fingers fidgeting with each other, and she walked over to a different bunk, away from the one I was on. "What aren't you telling me?" she asked. Her voice was collected and casual but her body language said otherwise.

"Nothing," I lied.

She hesitated and I knew, somehow, that she didn't want to lead me on with false information, especially since I left part of my story out. "I—I don't know. Maybe you're just crazy."

I narrowed my eyes as her lips twitched into a smile. "That's not funny," it even sounded to me like I was being whiney.

"Sorry," she shrugged. I started to forget about the nightmares and the pain and all of the things that were happening to me. It was just me and Annabeth hanging out in the infirmary like when I had just met her, in a sense. "Percy… please tell me about your other dream." She said.

I stared at her, and felt like telling her no. I wasn't going to do that. "It started with Aphrodite." Oh gods.

When I had relayed the whole dream to her in order of the happenings, from the toss to the melting gold, she just shut her eyes and left the room. My eyes followed behind her and I sat motionless, staring at the empty doorway for an eternity. I finally found the strength to follow after her.

I ran outside but I knew it was hopeless. I had waited too long and she was gone. I walked down the steps, kicking leaves on the path towards the cabins. The Big House towered over me and suddenly camp seemed like a nightmare. Dark, menacing clouds trembled over the campgrounds, shutting all sunlight out. Thunder cackled through the sheet of grey.

I began to notice that the further I walked, the more the colors faded from my vision. Everything was tainted grey and bleak. I wiped at my eyes and kept walking. It didn't work but I wasn't letting that get in the way of finding Annabeth.

The U-shaped row of the original cabins speckled the short distance. As I drew closer to them I realized that they all began to look like the plain white, run-down shack from _The Wizard of Oz_ movie. I half-expected Dorothy to pop out of the door, yelling, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." I trudged towards the Athena cabin. Above the old oak door—which had never been thick oak before—was Greek writing. It read like this: Αθηνά. A slab of wood, carved in the shape of an owl, was drilled on next to the words.

It was like I was trapped in a silent film. If you've ever seen that _Halloween Town_ movie where the whole world is transformed to a lifeless ghost town, then you could imagine this easily.

I walked up one step to the other and knocked on the door. I felt a presence on the opposite end and they hesitated before unlocking the door and heaving it open. "Malcolm."

He looked me over before bowing his head shortly and stepping to the side, gesturing for me to come in. He was decked out in full Greek Armor and beads of sweat trickled down his forehead. His dark hair clung to his skull.

I gave him an odd look and stepped inside. "Do you know where Annabeth went?" I asked him, standing awkwardly amongst a horde of genius children of Athena. They stared at me and gave the same curt nod as Malcolm had before returning to jotting down notes or typing on laptops. I turned to Malcolm.

I blinked rapidly, hoping to gain the slightest sliver of color. I would even accept a flash of pink by now.

"She's on her bunk, milord," he whispered and turned quickly, sitting at a desk with maps littering it. He looked over one and pushed it to the side, putting a frustrated hand to his head. I scrunched up my face at the choice of words but shook it off, looking around the room shortly.

Dull grey curls tumbled down the side of a bed from underneath a set of white sheets. The blanket suddenly rose up and sunk back down in the center of the mattress and light erupted through the curtain. I stepped towards her and drummed my fingers on the back of the laptop.

"Go away, please," Annabeth deadpanned, clicking a few more keys.

I quickly pulled up the blanket and dropped it on her lap.

"I said go—oh. Percy," she mumbled. She looked back at the screen of her laptop and dragged her finger across the heat censor mouse, doodling a curved line across what seemed to be a roofless theater or observatory.

"What's wrong?" I asked her quiet enough to keep the conversation between the two of us.

"You didn't tell me," she shrugged and quickly undid her last addition to the monument. "That would be unsound against an attack," she muttered to herself and drew in an opposite swerve. The ceiling now dipped in. "No, wait..." She erased furiously and stared at the building.

"I was going to," I mumbled. I stared down at the wood-panel floor nervously and shuffled from foot to foot.

"No disrespect, _sir Perseus_," she grumbled, "but do you mind… I don't know, _leaving_?" She asked bitterly and shut the laptop, setting it on the bed and standing up.

"Well, this conversation just took an ugly turn," I joked. Annabeth narrowed her eyes and brushed past me. Her hand shot up to her shoulder and she turned back to me. "What's wrong?" I asked, stepping towards her.

"It's none of your business, _milord_," she snapped and backed away from me.

"Stop calling me that!" I yelled, glaring at her now.

"What? Milord?" She asked. "I thought you would like that, _mi-lord_." She said.

"Stop," I muttered. My face started feeling hot and I clenched my fists up tightly, trying to not get mad at her. She glared back at me and the atmosphere suddenly turned tense. I took a short step towards her but came face-to-face with Malcolm.

"Calm down, Percy," He said, holding his hands out to stop me. "I m-mean, Perseus." He amended.

"Why'd you call me that?" I asked him, still seething. My palms were sweaty and they tensed, then relaxed. The whole cabin had been watching intently—some even took notes.

"It's respectful," a girl with what looked like black hair informed me, shuffling through her note cards. I looked her up and down. I had never seen her in this cabin before. Why didn't I recognize her? I brushed it off.

"Annabeth told us to," a different girl said. I knew her, I thought. She probably had strawberry blonde hair and the same grey eyes as Annabeth. The only difference was that Annabeth's eyes could somehow captivate me.

Annabeth crossed her arms and turned her nose up in the air. She was acting so differently now and I didn't like it. I was still Percy, the Seaweed Brain with terrible ideas and no clue how to strategize. She shouldn't have been treating me like a poisonous pesticide.

"Annabeth," she cut me off, storming out of the cabin. I couldn't believe how childish she was being. There was no law that said I had to tell her everything. I still felt like I should've gone and comforted her.

I excused myself from the cabin and walked down to cabin three. It was a replica of the Athena cabin, but the trident symbol was rusted onto the wall and the Greek letters were far off from reading Athena. ΠοσεІδώνας.

**I'm sorry. Another suckish chapter. I feel terrible for taking this long and not writing absolutely amazing quality, but I was just distracted by the start of school. So sorry.**


	5. I meet an Algea

I sat uncomfortably on my bunk and examined my hands. They didn't seem different. They were just regular palms. Nothing special, but Annabeth seemed to think a little differently than I did. These were destructive hands of a god. When I thought about it, I got nervous. Gods ruled the world. I was in charge.

This was going to be a nightmare.

Before I could clothe myself in angst, there was a sharp knock at my cabin door. I blinked, still trying to gain color back to my vision, and pulled open the door cautiously. The stranger from the Athena cabin walked in, with a dignified air around her. She glanced around and seemed to see a bland room like I did. Or she just didn't care for Poseidon.

She tossed her charcoal hair over her shoulder firmly as she turned around. She examined me and then gave a low bow. I narrowed my eyes and gave her an odd look also.

I tried to tell her that she didn't have to bow, but I was so stunned that it came out something like, "Uh duh-huh."

She glanced up at me through her bangs and waited patiently. I managed to clear my throat and told her to stop bowing. It was so weak when I said it, that I was surprised when she listened.

She straightened and looked at me expectantly.

"Uh, hi?" I squeaked. Her eyes were powerful and brooding. They were black, similar to Briares's one big brown calf eye. No white peeked out. Her skin was pale and shimmered every time she moved. She was beautiful in a creepy way.

"Salutations," she whispered. Her voice was doubled, like she was speaking into a microphone when I was right next to her. I could hear her speak and then heard the echo only a second after.

"I'm," I paused and tried to remember my name. I couldn't think straight as I stared at her menacing eyes.

"Percy," she finished for me. "I am Ania."

"Uh… hi," I repeated and wanted to slap myself. That was the dumbest thing I could say. She grinned like she liked the way I spoke and then began to wander around my cabin.

"This is where you reside?"

"Yeah," I mumbled and stood motionlessly as she walked around. She paused in front of the miniature trident leaning against my wall and looked at me.

"May I?" She held out a hand as if she longed to touch it and whimpered quietly. I looked at her oddly and nodded. She hesitantly wrapped her fingers around the heavy metal and lifted it easily, which surprised me. I had tried for a while just to make it more than an inch off the ground. She lifted it like a piece of Styrofoam. She spun it in her hand and looked at the head of the weapon.

**Π** was engraved in the center.

"Ania," I started. She looked over at me curiously. "Why are you here?"

Her brows scrunched together and she appeared to be glaring at me. "You do not enjoy my presence?" she asked, though it was hard to understand what she was saying because of the way her voice was. It had made me suspicious of her immediately.

"No, it's just—" I started to say, but she interrupted me.

"You wanted me to be the daughter of Athena."

"You're not a daughter of Athena?" I asked stupidly. If her eyes didn't give it away, her voice should've.

She shook her head and laid the trident gently on my bunk. She stood up and smiled, thinking of her godly parent with fondness. "My mother is Eris, goddess of strife."

"Oh," the whole _goddess of strife_ thing threw me off balance. "Why were you in the Athena cabin?"

She grinned and I could tell she thought I was stupid. "That's where you were." She answered simply.

"That still doesn't answer my question." I said with a similar simplicity that sent the message that I was becoming suspicious of her. I looked her over again and felt weak in the knees.

She reached out as if to touch my face, but pulled back immediately. "I have been mistaken possibly. You are not the new immortal?" She backed away nervously and started to walk towards the door, but I stopped her.

"No, I am," I answered, grabbing her arm. She looked down quickly and back up at my eyes.

"Then I am correct," she replied confidently and tried to discretely pull her arm from my hold. She frowned, seemingly really disappointed with me. It bothered me because for some odd reason, I wanted her approval. "My sisters and I—we are the Algea. Dolor."

"Dolor?" I asked. I racked my brain to understand what that was, but no old stories came to mind. One thought _did_ come to mind. Usually, when there are immortal sisters, you should run. The Sirens, the Gorgons, the Grey Sisters, the Fates, the Furies—if they even were female—and now the Algea.

I backed away from her and reached for Riptide. _She could've killed you already_, part of me thought, but I wasn't going to put my guard down.

"Yes, Dolor. It means sadness or pain, in your world," she nodded. "I am grief, sorrow, distress. I am trouble."

That gave me even more reason to back away and draw Riptide, but I waited. I wasn't sure why, but she didn't seem to want to do me any harm.

"You do not understand," she whispered. I focused on the echo that came from her mouth. "You are the god of pain. Of suffering. Greater than all the rest." I was sure she added the last bit just to make me feel better. "That is why the daughter of Athena witnessed a burning. It hurt her to see you in harm's way."

I started to somehow understand what she was saying. A horrible thought came to my mind. The little girl in my vision… Oh gods. "I hurt Annabeth. And all the people in my dream…"

"It was their time," Ania nodded.

"How could it be their time? The girl… she was so young," I felt myself getting angry. Ania staggered back a step and held out her hands.

"You must control your temper. It is fatal to all people within a hundred mile radius." She told me, rushing out her words. "This camp will cease to exist."

That shut me down. I sighed and slumped onto my bed. Ania sat awkwardly next to me and put her hand on my shoulder.

"It could be worse." She whispered.

"How?" I sneered, feeling bad about my attitude. "How could it be worse?" I honestly wanted an answer.

She turned to me, completely serious and said four words that made my day.

"You could be Hades."

**I understand this was short, but if it didn't clear up your questions then I might rewrite this whole story. Just let me know.**


	6. I have a choice

**As always, there was a question. But I came to explain, without rewriting, because it was just a misunderstanding on my part.**

**See, you asked me why Percy is the god of pain and suffering— ya da, ya da—if he is replacing Pan, god of the wild. Okay, simple answer—please try to follow. Pan is gone, right? And he appointed Grover as the new Lord of the wild, but he didn't make him a god. So another immortal figure had to take his place. Kind of a way to please Nemesis, goddess of revenge and equality. I never said it would have to be the same figure, just another immortal.**

**Hope that clears things up.**

Ania followed me around camp after explaining that the Algea were forever indebted to me. The grey world came with the gift. Not all immortals were colorblind, like I was. Just another thing to absolutely adore about godhood.

"You must return to Olympus in a matter of days before your form takes place. You won't know it until it's too late for your mortal friends and you won't be able to stop it without proper training," she warned, but I didn't want to listen to her. I was feeling rebellious over the whole deal. I didn't ask for this responsibility.

I stalked around, acting like a brat, but I didn't care at the time. A girl I had just met was following me around, I had hurt my girlfriend by complete accident, and I had let all those people die. Couldn't I stop them from the pain? I knew I could inflict it, but shouldn't I be able to control that?

"Sir Perseus, please listen to me," she said, begging me. I tried to ignore her as best I could and made it down to the training arena. I pulled out Riptide and turned on her.

"_This _is where I train. This is where I learn battle skills. This is where I made my start," I told her, uncapping my sword. I slashed at a dummy with all my might and it combusted, burning with black flames. I cursed.

"You don't know your own strength," she warned, suddenly appearing in front of me. I tried to hide my surprise and narrowed my eyes at her.

"I don't want to know it. I don't even want this strength," I said bitterly. I went around her, towards another dummy, and attacked again. The dummy crumpled into black sand and blew away in the wind, like an actual monster. I turned to her. "Stop doing that!"

She glared at me. "I did not use my power on such a useless toy. You are the one who wastes your energy on demigod-level equipment." I narrowed my eyes, knowing she was right. She was right about everything, but I didn't want her to be.

I threw Riptide as far as I could and it surprised me as it soared through the sky and disappeared from my sight as a tiny speck. My eyes widened. I really didn't know my own strength. I turned to Ania, who had her arms crossed and a tight smirk.

"You doubted me," she said indifferently.

I walked around her and left the arena. Riptide returned in my pocket as I walked to the Big House. Ania followed behind me like she was silently teasing me for being wrong. I bit my tongue and tried to ignore the elegant and arrogant attitude she had.

I had forgotten all of the stares from other campers, knowing that they were talking about me behind my back. I had managed to not care about what they thought, in a way. I still wanted them to like me—you can never have too many friends—but if they didn't, what could I do? Bow down to them?

Chiron sat in his fake wheelchair, holding his cards with Mr. D. They were clearly having an intense game of pinochle because Mr. D was cursing and his face was completely colored (which I assumed was red with rage). Two invisible players occupied the empty seats, cards floating in front of them.

Chiron looked up at me and then at Ania. "Hello, Percy. And... I apologize, my dear, it seems I've forgotten your name."

"Ania, Daughter of Eris, eldest of the Algea," she told him politely, keeping her arms crossed. Mr. D looked up, like he recognized her voice, with a sort of fear. "Hello, Dionysus."

"Ania, dear, what in the gods' names are you doing here?" he managed out. The coloring drained from his cheeks and he set down his cards, which were clearly a losing hand.

"My sisters and I have come to terms with our new master," she told him easily and nodded towards me, "Percy. Why, Dionysus, you haven't changed much since the last time I saw you. When was that again?"

"We need not bring that up," he told her quickly, glancing at me nervously. Chiron only chuckled, still looking at his cards, feigning interest. The two started to argue about their past experiences, and I realized they had an elaborate history. I hadn't come here for them to play catch-up, though. I needed to talk to Chiron.

"I have to go to Olympus," I blurted, not really wanting to hear embarrassing stories about Mr. D or anyone else for that matter. All talking stopped. Chiron stared up at me like he was trying to detect a lie or a joke, and then he looked genuinely pleased.

"I must say I am glad to see you making the mature decision," his eyes darted behind him for a second, "but it seems we should discuss this inside." He stood up from the chair, a white stallion body growing and towering over us with knobby knees. In that second, a figure shimmered and Annabeth gripped her Yankees cap so tight, I thought she was going to rip it.

She slapped her hand with her Yankees cap and stared at me like I'd just poked her between the eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"Hush, child," Chiron told her. "Percy and I must discuss this matter in private." He started pushing me inside, and I was so relieved that I wouldn't have to explain anything to Annabeth. I wanted her to be involved, but I couldn't handle her getting mad at me or using me as a punching bag or any other form of punishment she could come up with. Like the silent treatment.

I stood awkwardly in the middle of the conference room, staring at the ping-pong table like an idiot. Chiron closed the door behind him and gestured for me to sit down, and I did. It was strange sitting in my seat without the rest of the council there, bickering about what to do. I felt singled out and alone. Bottom line—I didn't like it.

"Percy, what made you choose to go to Olympus?" he asked standing on the other side of the table. The single lamp over the table made me feel like I was being interrogated, just another juvenile delinquent in the world causing chaos and stealing lollipops.

"Ania," I told him. He didn't look at all surprised. I figured he would've known my little helper was in charge of me. She was like that annoying voice inside my head, constantly telling me how to brush my teeth or put on pants. _One leg at a time._

"She has told you the consequences?" He asked me, putting his hands on his hips. He fidgeted his tail, unable to stay still for some unknown explanation.

"What consequences?" I asked, suddenly doubting my want to go to Olympus. Now I was interested in hearing about Olympus.

"Once you get there, you stay until your training is complete," he told me. Something in his voice gave a warning. I really needed to think about what I was doing and how it would affect my life. His eyes were searching me for some reaction, so I gave him one.

"How long will that take?"

"Depends. Could be months. Maybe years," he shrugged, placing his palms on the table. He looked me directly in the eye like what he was going to say next was very important. "Perhaps a lifetime."

My chest felt tight and a lump nested in my throat, choking the words back. I tried to blink or move or something, but my body was frozen. A lifetime…? He was talking about Annabeth. He had to have been. I didn't really have a choice though, did I? I both stayed with my friends for a while and made them all disintegrate in my true godly form, or I went to Olympus and learned to control myself. Wow… toughie.

"I'm going to Olympus," I decided. Chiron looked surprised and shifted from hoof to hoof. "I can't let everyone at camp when I take my true form and all. Right? That would be selfish and stupid." I told him, more convincing myself than anyone else.

"Very well," he said, hooves clopping towards the door. "I will IM Olympus and have them send someone to retrieve you."

"I can't just go through the elevator?" It seemed a bit extreme to have a god come pick up a kid when I could just go to the Empire State Building and ride to the sixth hundredth floor. Chiron looked at me like I had just dropped from space.

"Of course not," he sighed. "This is a delicate ceremony. You're making the switch to Olympus, home of the gods. You have to be properly welcomed, with laurels and horns. The works." He chuckled, probably thinking of me in a toga with a crown of leaves on my head. The thought made me cringe.

**Okay, it's late. I don't feel like writing anymore tonight, so tada. A terrible chapter that I just wrote in like an hour or two (breaks included).**

**By the way, I was checking out a friend's story and I'm disappointed. She doesn't have perfect grammar skills and such, I get it. But saying you suck and that your grammar fails. That the story is a waste of time—what's your problem? Couldn't you say it nicely or try to help her out? What the Hades is with that? What if I looked up a few of your stories and absolutely tore them up? I could do that easily, because no one writes perfectly (except Rick, haha) and this site is practice. We're supposed to build each other and help out. Get a life and stop bashing people when they clearly aren't perfect with their English. Jerks.**

**Thanks for reading my rant. :)**


	7. Tending the Hearth

I stood up on Half-Blood Hill, completely on my own, waiting. I wasn't sure what I was waiting for but there was a tug in my gut; something was drawing me up here and it was a nagging feeling that I couldn't identify and I couldn't ignore. It was like a faint whisper in my head and for a moment, I paused and considered Ania, always in the back of my mind, guiding me threw sticky situations. She also guided me _into _sticky situations. The thought put me on edge and I considered just going back to my cabin and burying my head under my sheets. I could've saved myself so much trouble.

A surge of power rippled across the valley and nearly knocked me over, and my face couldn't contain the surprise. The winds suddenly picked up, swirling and thrashing tree limbs around me. A booming, awkward voice filled my ear and for a second I believed it to be my father. But the man who materialized before me was so much more… crazy. Yes, he was a crazy man with serious mental issues, though it was forbidden that I use the word to describe him. It was an unspoken rule.

I grudgingly bowed my head in some form of respect and waited for him to speak first. He was more than willingly to shoot his mouth off.

"Come, boy, we do not have time to spare," Zeus grumbled and I could sense his dissatisfaction at having to be here.

"Wait," I stepped towards him for a second and almost retreated as he raised a solitary brow. "That's it? We go to Olympus and start training? Why couldn't I take the elevator?"

Zeus mumbled something under his breath and heaved an impatient sigh. "The ceremony is not _here_; it awaits you on Olympus."

I stared at him for a moment. I didn't value the hassle they were putting up for me. I was nothing too extraordinary; just another son of Poseidon about to throw his life away. I began to wonder how bored a god became, sitting on a throne for eternity—or until they faded. Was there an underworld for gods that faded?

Zeus stretched and yawned quite obnoxiously, not exactly presenting himself as the king of the gods very well, especially to a young godling such as myself. I waited patiently for some expression of respect or trust or honoring for the upcoming ceremony. There was none. Weren't these things supposedly special?

He glanced down at me, his eyes burning a bright, murderous gold. His whole being began to follow the lead and I instinctively averted my eyes. What I hadn't realized at the time was that I was no longer affected.

In a second I felt my being tearing and shoving away from itself, trying to force every atom and molecule to float freely in an open pendulum. There was no pain, just the feeling of wind coursing through my veins. A blur of earthen colors soared by around me and I recognized that I did no longer exist in essence. I was merely a force that was, but could never honestly be. Flashes of bright colors blurred through my vision.

And we were suddenly there, on Olympus, standing in front of the throne room.

My head was spinning and everything was twisted and lopsided. My throat was closing and my stomach was freely doing somersaults by its own accord. I covered my mouth. "I think I'm going to puke."

I managed to look away from Zeus before bending over. I restrained myself as long as possible, trying to hold my stomach and not embarrass myself but Zeus was already reveling in my suffering. I felt it coming up and I tried to force it down.

The tall doors slowly swung open at the command of nymphs and satyrs; I watched them struggle against the massive weight out of the corner of my eye. They were wincing and grunting, using full body weight on the heavy doors and I felt like I should've been doing the task. Zeus didn't appear to mind the slaving they endured. I felt my cheeks heat up as I noticed all of the gods and goddesses sitting in their thrones, appearing so much more superior to me. My father's smile was hidden behind his hand.

The throne room was decorated finely, pure white banners hanging behind every throne, starting from the tall ceiling and touching down on the ground. Wild flower and honeysuckle hung on the walls, curtousy of Demeter and all of the thrones were sturdy gold… well, thrones. Real thrones, not chairs to match the gods. They were intricately decorated with images of scenes that mirrored the gods' domain. Each throne very fitting.

On my dad's throne, waves thrashed wildly, storm clouds forming above them. Zeus' throne crackled with electricity over land. Intimate scenes on Aphrodite's throne made my face flush red with embarrassment and I forced myself to look away. A golden book page turned on the arm rest of Athena's throne and I soon realized that she would rather read then be engaged in the ceremony. It almost bothered me, but I wasn't going to call her out. This was not a place for kids, I could tell. I had to be mature.

I was captivated by the various scenes and shifting images, ultimately avoiding Aphrodite's and Eros's thrones in particular, and was soon knocked from my stupor when a horn blasted in my ear. I glanced behind me at a little _Roman_ cherub holding a long brass horn, a little confused as to why it would be attending a Greek festivity. I brushed it off.

Zeus disappeared from my side and materialized on his throne quickly. I glanced around me, suddenly feeling lost and extremely awkward as almost every god and goddess was looking my way. I was like one of the penguins at Sea World—I didn't do much but the people just couldn't keep their eyes off of me. I tried to swallow hard but it got caught in my throat, causing me to choke. Hera raised a judgmental eyebrow.

Then everything seemed to get worse, because off in the corner I noticed the misty image of a crowd of people. Some were not paying any attention while others were completely attached to the experience, as if they were being forced to watch. I recognized the Big House and my eyes roamed over a pair of light gray ones. And in a flurry of blonde curls, she was gone. I felt like someone had just come up to me and poked me in the eyes.

I tried averting my attention inconspicuously but my father seemed to notice. He pursed his lips and his shoulders sat a little lower afterwards.

"Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon," Zeus' voice covered the hall in a thick spread of displeasure. He recovered his composure and flashed me a rustic smile. "Come forward."

I glanced at my father for a moment and he nodded encouragingly, trying to keep my hopes ignited somewhere inside of me. But that flame was long extinguished and I was in such a mood as to where even my father's glowing smile was pointless. Even still, I followed the command and came closer to the head of the throne room and quickly kneeled down in front of Zeus, my head bowed. I glanced up at him and he smiled a little wider and quite smugly. I could tell he enjoyed flattery and respect almost as much as I enjoyed my friends and being beside my mother.

Then I began to think of my mother. And it was then that I felt weakest. She would be heartbroken, her little boy held in Olympus, to be thrown into the horrible, lonely life of godhood, possibly never able to see her again. And grandchildren were most likely out of the question. Was she even aware of what was going on right then?

I could feel my heart drop into my stomach as Thunder Head told me to stand. I did so shakily and tried to meet his eyes. He started rolling off questions about responsibility and such that I hardly listened to, but I agreed and nodded and did as instructed. And at the end of that, Hera stood up and quickly shooed him away. And then her questions went on a long roll. Things about marriage and honor and such, as if she were filling in a dating questionnaire. I answered haphazardly and tried to keep a safe line between me and the other male gods, including my father.

"Honor your immortal wife?" I'd try my best, but I honestly didn't want an immortal wife. She grunted disapprovingly.

"Sustain contact with any children?" Uh… I guess so?

"Keep peace between your relatives?" Sure. Well, not Ares, but the other's are cool. Ares snarled and cracked his knuckles.

I continued answering questions as she asked them and then she stopped, looking over my answers she had written down and studied me over the paper. She bit the end of her pencil and nodded as if she had made her decision for something. I wasn't nervous. Yet.

When I figured they had finished their interrogation, Aphrodite quickly pushed Hera aside and smiled at me. I gave her a nervous grin. Aphrodite was one of my favorite goddesses to be honest, but she always made me so uneasy and uncomfortable, like I was about to receive a makeover and a date to prom at any given moment. It was the nervousness of an attractive girl being too close. Though the case appeared different whenever Annabeth was around.

Aphrodite's questions were a little different; they were modernized and quick, to the point, basics of romance. Her son Eros stood by her shoulder and whenever she appeared finished with her questioning, he would supply another question. And majority of their questions made me uncomfortable and my face was ruby red the longer the event went on.

"One night stand or relationship?" Relationship, obviously.

"Friends with benefits?" No! I almost answered that a little too quickly for her liking but she ignored it. I assumed she didn't like the idea of my avoiding a quick romance to ease her needs.

"Love or lust?" I answered with my own question. Anyone in specific? And of course she waggled her eyebrows and winked at me. I started to stutter and my face heated up again, like I knew it was about to do throughout my initiation to godhood. Were these questions even necessary? I didn't understand why I was being interrogated. But I wasn't about to upset any more gods, even though it was my natural talent according to Rachel. I managed to barely squeak out the prior option before Athena's eyes flitted away from her book to stare at me, an owl with blood-lust.

Some campers giggled and burst out laughing, and my hands felt clammy. But these questions weren't awkward enough for Eros and he decide that he and his mother needed more juicy details on my failing love life.

"Ever been intimate?" he asked over Aphrodite's shouldered. She waved him away. And turned back to me; by now I was a deer in the headlights, frozen and barely breathing.

"He meant, have you—" she started but I quickly shook my head, unable to get the words out of my throat. Athena seemed pleased with that response and returned to her hopefully very interesting book. I could feel the specifics coming into play.

"First kiss?" she asked, putting her hands over her heart as if she knew the answer. And I was positive that she had been keeping a close eye on me for a while.

"What do you mean?" I spluttered, no air flowing into my lungs.

"Where and when?" she said, smoothing her hair calmly.

"Um," I managed. Again, I must stress that my face was dipped in cherry red paint and a high-quality light was illuminating my whole head with heat and brightness. "Mt. Saint Helens… I think. Before the, uh, explosion."

She seemed pleased with my response and my father was now studying me curiously, as were the other immortals. "Who?"

This was my breaking point, breathing shallow, mind moving a million miles a second, my heart beating so loudly in my chest. I was almost positive it had been strung across the wall for everyone to see and hear, but the stiff feeling in my joints preventing me from checking. I felt like someone was prodding me with a cold metal stick underneath a microscope lens. Sand poured into my mouth and my throat dried out to a point of no return.

The look my father was now giving me told me to lie. Lie with everything I had in me to escape his and Athena's wrath. He did not want to hear or even assume such a possibility and I was about to disappoint greatly. I couldn't lie to Aphrodite; she had been pretty… interested in my adventures and I knew she would instantly detect my untruth. She nearly squealed as I dropped the A-bomb.

Athena grabbed both of the arms of her throne and nearly strangled them, her face deathly pale and her eyes wider than I thought possible. My father wasn't quite so on edge but he was shaking his head at me, his head resting on one hand against his throne. He was not pleased at all.

_Stay away from my daughter. How many times must I say it?_ I could read this off of the goddess's face as she clenched her jaw. Her breathing began evening out by sheer force and she relaxed into her chair. I was honest; Aphrodite hadn't attempted to smite me; Athena could not change the past.

"Oh, goody," Aphrodite smiled, clasping her hands together, absolutely elated. "Okay, ever had a kid?"

I furrowed my brow. I had soon caught on to the fact that these were questions she had previously written out, not designed for me solely. These questions were to be used to try and discover my 'style', as it would later become called, whether I was a 'Hades' or a 'Poseidon'. Basically, a nut-job jerk or the more human, close to the home nice guy. I was almost positive Athena would throw on the Hades end of the spectrum.

"No?" It came out as a question by its own; I thought the answer was obvious enough. For one thing, I was basically still a kid, just barely sixteen, and the question only a few prior to that one was a clear response that it wasn't exactly possible.

She nodded and seemed to log that into her memory bank. That was something that made me nervous.

"I think we're done here," she smiled and pulled her son by the arm back to her throne. He simply stood beside her and crossed is hands in front of him. I couldn't help but continually glance over at them; I didn't want them to start up some big scheme.

The questions rolled on, each god taking their time and their turn. Why they didn't perform this long and tedious task after the whole 'ceremony', I wasn't sure. But I, again, kept my mouth shut and my thoughts returned to the back of my mind where they continued to nag.

Finally, after Eris, goddess of strife, had finished her own addition to the questioning, Zeus rose from where he had been sitting and I honestly imagined his rear to be quite numb based off of how numb my own legs were. He raised one very meaty fist above his head and a long, cackling bolt of electricity appeared between his fingers, shifting uneasily and stretching, not enjoying its confinement at all. His hand dropped down to his side. His mouth peaked open to start a speech about something important when Hestia, sitting by the fire, tending the flames, looked over to me.

Everyone froze and the world stopped moving, I could sense it. All sound stopped but the flames by the fire kept cracking and popping as she pushed the wood around.

"My congratulations," she said, smiling. Her long brown hair fell across her face as she leaned forward to gently blow on a dying flame.

"Thank you, Lady Hestia," I tried replying. I could feel the overwhelming sensation and the stress melt away from me as I hesitantly came towards her. She invited me to sit, which I did graciously. The fire's warmth eased away tension and I felt like I could sit there for an eternity and never become bothered by anything. I felt nice and good. I felt at home.

"Percy," she said, staring into the flame, "I should like to give you something. And I know how you will react."

I looked down at the flames whirring and whispering to each other. I strained my ears to hear what they were saying but it was all only a murmur; they spoke their own language. The voice was deep, rich, and quiet, keeping to itself and I could feel it wrapping around my mind, old and powerful.

The flames started shifting and growing the more Hestia poked at them. They whipped and purred and reached for me and the heat became intense and brutal. I started to back away but Hestia grabbed my arm and told me I'd be fine. She nodded towards me and I reluctantly leaned forward. The fire stretched two long hands towards me and brushed across my face, but it didn't burn.

The deeper I looked into the flames the more I saw a fuzzy image become clear. It was me and Ania staring at each other like we had just gotten into an intense fight. I wasn't exactly surprised. The picture broadened and I noticed Annabeth standing behind me, holding my hand, trying to back me up. I squinted as Ania pulled something from her pocket and played it across her fingers.

No words were spoken as Annabeth's hand started pulling away from mine. Her image began to fade into nothing and then she was gone. I narrowed my eyes, confused and suddenly not enjoying the vision as much as I hadn't already been doing. I looked older, not by much though. Ania was still young and beautiful but I had… grown. I was a few inches taller and my hair was slightly longer and that much more unruly. But my clothes were purely black. I thought I had broken into Nico's closet.

We still glared at each other, harshly, trying to intimidate the other and there was something strange in our eyes. Something I didn't understand.

And then, the most horrible thing that could ever happen to anyone ever.

The vision broke off and I pushed away from the fire, breathing heavily. I turned my stare on the goddess next to me and she was staring intently. With a nod of her head, the world shook and began it rotation. Zeus looked down at where I had been and frowned, closing his mouth.

"Huh," he grumbled, "Where'd the boy go?" He gazed around the room and noticed me sitting beside Hestia.

The rest of the audience turned towards us, both sitting on our rears, staring up at them. I noticed my father's smirk.

"Poseidon, your son is easily distracted, isn't he?" Athena teased, scoffing and returning to her book.

And once again, I was blushing like a ripe cherry tomato.

**People, attention please. LOGAN LERMAN will be featured in TWO, yes two, more Percy Jackson movies. They will be continuing the series according to one website and he wishes to participate in all five movies. Yes!**


	8. My First Task

**Two things—1) Last chapter stunk. Like, to the high heavens, smelled like rat manure. I apologize. Again.**

**2) Thanks for reviewing. Again.**

Upon the completion of the painfully long, and unorganized, ceremony, I was shoved deep into doing absolutely nothing. The other gods were suddenly in full-swing, taking their time in completing seemingly tedious tasks. And I left to stand in the center of the throne room, lost, feeling so out-of-place and empty.

Training was the basics; the teleporting, short bursts of pure energy, handling a chariot—it was a simple enough task, as I had done many times before with Blackjack and friends. I was expected to take down a certain number of monsters from the Underworld in minimal time and I felt like I was once again back at camp, training with everyone else.

Some of the challenges were almost an insult, such as the Kampê had been to Annabeth's intellect. I felt like I was hardly being pushed, only expected to hold the same amount of responsibility as a mortal. My powers were unimportant, inconsequential. I ignored the bitter feeling and enjoyed my time of hardly motivating myself to do better.

Hades had taken a certain appeal to me as I was in control of torture, pure suffering, and had taken the task of specialized training into his own hands.

"You have to know when to pity," he would muse and wring his hands, hardly acknowledging my presence. I tried listening to what he offered, and though at first I ignored him, I began to see the sense in what he was saying. I couldn't pity everyone, everything, just because they had a pleading look. Some people were still needed; others were more of ways to take up the empty atmosphere. And I had to acknowledge that.

I had often questioned him; why I was given these powers, rather than the position I had been offered prior to the war. When I would just be the lowly second lieutenant and my life would be joyously spent with my father—I would have preferred living with Triton and Amphitrite than doing Hades' dirty work.

He had explained, impatiently, that the golden apple's each contained a 'twinge of… err, magic in which you receive from them'. It was like the poisoned apple; you'd get the poisoning almost instantly. He had made the comparison of eating chocolate and expecting the results of carrots. "Absolutely ridiculous when you think of it."

And I had to agree—was it not a valid reason? It seemed moderately absurd, yet I put up no argument.

He taught me how to, if necessary, guide a soul—I grimaced at the choice of words—to the record studio, where Charon would take control of them and do what he saw fit.

We continued training like this for the span of a few months before sending me out with whomever I chose. I had considered Ania, but upon remembering the vision from Hestia, quickly chose one whom appeared more, how to put it? Clumsy.

Lupè looked over at me as we trekked through the smog-covered woods, grinning as if a dog had just been revealed to the outside world. "Wow," she mouthed, still staring at me. "I've never had a real master…"

"I'm not," I quickly interjected, "your master. I'm more of the guy you do favors for."

"Do you return the favors?"

I barely managed in time to pause and think about that as we stepped over tree roots and dirt-clumps, Lupè squeezing in the opportunity to trip and have me grab her arms and stable her. "I might."

"I'm alright," she breathed, nervous about where she stepped, and only growing more self-conscious of her footwork; more as her _lack_ of proper footwork. We continued are walk through the Washington state forest, not positive as to where we were going. "Can you see anything, my lord?"

"Please," I stopped my walking and closed my eyes in annoyance. I despised titles. "_Please_ don't call me that."

"Sorry, my…" she looked back at me, "sir?"

"That either," I warned, resuming my walk through the thick fog that blanketed the ground. She slowly began to follow me, staring down at the ground intently; based on the number of times I looked back at her.

Through the clouds of morning mist, a structure began to reveal itself, a looming, run-down house, white paint chipping off. Lupè's lip curling in minor disgust, possibly fear. "This is where the man's dying?"

"I was told he had been bitten by a poisonous snake or something," I shrugged, approaching the house and peering through the window. The entire first floor visible through the window was completely vacant, but there was a faint whooping cough, maybe a crying woman. "C'mon."

I pushed off of the ground, lifting up to the second-story window about nine feet up, and grabbing onto the window pane. Lupè grudgingly followed, managing to remain suspended just a short while longer. I found myself hanging from the pane and cursed under my breath.

"I didn't think this far," I mumbled, glancing over at her. She hung at equal height and found her lower lip jutting out involuntarily. She soon smiled at me and pulled herself up to the window. Much to my surprise, she hardly stumbled as she stepped through the window as a ghost would. She heaved the window open and I pulled myself up. "I didn't know you could do that."

She looked at me, brows furrowed and turned towards a narrow hall. "You never asked."

She took off carelessly down the hallway, searching every room, especially ones that hid behind the white-washed doors, until she came to the one we were seeking, a man lying in bed and a woman at his side. He was deathly pale, as with most house-calls, and purple bags hung under his eyes. On the lower end of his neck, two small puncture wounds were colored a sickly shade of green. My stomach churned as Lupè rushed to his side.

"Poor thing," she sighed. "Probably in a lot of pain. I like it."

I barely gave her a once-over, having become used to the fact that the three sisters often enjoyed pain; like a fuel. I looked upon the man with new eyes, not like the ones I had used on the Andromeda, warning the younger demigod about the explosion that would occur; I looked at him like just another waste of air, as Hades had taught me.

I quietly held out my hand, using all of my energy to focus on his soul, the breath escaping him for a moment, and his eyes fluttering closed. The woman looked at him, horrified, and began whispering his name, shaking him, pounding on his chest. I could only watch for so long before the guilt began to swell inside me.

"Come on," I told Lupè, turning to leave.

I grabbed her arm quickly and pictured Charon's office, teleporting us to the small studio. I once again felt like my body was tearing away from itself, with little to no pain, and arrived at my destination, my companion gripping my hand tightly. I shook her off and stepped into the waiting room. I held out my arm and the soul awkwardly slipped out of my sleeve, standing to full height and glancing around him.

He turned in a complete circle, taking in the chairs, and the transparent people just like him, the smell of death and plague and decay. He appeared to notice me, one of the three solid figures in the room, and gave a questioning gaze. "Am I…"

I nodded.

Before I could watch him break down with shock, I nodded to the clumsy blond beside me and we vanished in a cloud of black sand.

**Eh. Again, not my best. Just not feeling it too much.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: To all my dear, sweet, lovingly faithful reviewers,**

**This story, effective immediately, unless decided otherwise, will be placed on HIATUS. I realize that this is against the rules, but I felt I owed you all an explanation and I hope you don't report, for this chapter will be deleted upon the continuation.**

**You may ask why I am suddenly holding off. If you would like to know, I'm writing what will probably escalade into a trilogy, but for now is a story that is like venting and revenge. **

**I know—wow, high fiving Jesus, that's really immature. When you read this story, it may help you understand, it may not.**

**My muse: my lying, but sweet, boyfriend. Humph, lying and sweet don't belong in the same sentence… Let's try this. My boyfriend's really sweet to me. However, he's a compulsive liar about what I consider to be important. Did I mention he broke a promise?**

**I bet you don't care, I wouldn't. But it's a heads up for a story that is consuming all of my thoughts. I would feel terrible writing a chapter that doesn't blend well with what's happened so far, and so I'm going to get this out of my system.**

**Thank you for your consideration and cooperation.**

**Seriously, **_**please**_** don't report because this message is only temporary.**

**My story: **_**Exposure**_**.**

**Rating: T**

**Characters: Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase**

**World: Books, AU (Alternate Universe)**

**Thanks again!**


	10. Minor Havoc

**And **_**hello**_** again; lovely evening, yes? Another apology, I find myself handing out, because I have once again gone off with some other idea or let personal life plague my mind. I'd like to point out that I made a dreadful mistake last chapter and no one pointed it out: Kampê had no part in insulting Annabeth's intelligence. That was the Sphinx. Goodness.**

**Look up 'Black Sclera' for Achos' eyes.**

**So, I guess I should tell you that Lupè is my favorite of the three sisters. But that's not important. My mind just ran away for a moment, but I retrieved it. Have no fear :)**

**And here we go.**

Ania was staring.

In a totally blasé way, her eyes were trained on this one spot on my forehead and I couldn't figure out, for the life of me, what in Hades she found interesting. I had tried my best for discretion as I rubbed my brow, but it hardly fazed her and nothing became evident on my palm. I drummed my fingers awkwardly on the smooth, glossy marble table top, Lupè beside me, bobbing her head and tapping her pointer fingers like drum sticks. The band in her head must have struck a power chord as she slammed both on the table and her head bobbled four times to count off a beat.

I turned away from Ania sitting across from me and studied the third girl's face. Nothing. It was empty and dull and eerily beautiful in an _I'll-kill-you-if-you-talk-to-me_ way. Her frizzed red hair, dangerously close to Rachel Elizabeth Dare's, hung down her shoulders in drooping curls, flat black eyes contemplating space. The thing about her eyes was that I had an impossibly hard time meeting them. Her face slowly angled towards mine and she gave a crooked grin.

"Percy, right?" She hissed out with an odd reptilian charm.

The nod I gave was more forced than I'd intended.

"Beautiful," she tilted her head with a coy grin, one that I hadn't seen normal girls do on any given reasoning. Two canine teeth flashed at me and she leaned away from me, having entered my personal bubble without my knowledge.

"Don't mind her," Lupè told me, quirking her head down at the table and tracing her fingers in circles. "She thinks her eyes scare people," she looked over at me and put up a secretive hand, "but honestly, it looks like someone took a Sharpie to them."

I looked back at the third Algea, slow and awkward, my tongue fumbling along my lower teeth as she kept her head cocked and her eyes grinning seductively. "And your name is…?"

"Achos," she hissed. Her hand extended, black nails longer than they should have been, glossy and gleaming. "Personification of distress."

"You all are different personifications?" I turned to Ania expecting the first response from her as always, in the same way that Annabeth used to tell me what I needed to know in the middle of a battle. And I could suddenly understand some weird attraction between us in the light of how similar she was to my best friend, because I knew my feelings for Annabeth—denied frequently, of course—and they weren't present for Ania yet, but my worry of spending too much time with her was incredibly real.

"Personification of pain and grief," Lupè grinned over at me. "Headaches, cramps, a decent gutting. The usual."

"Amazing," I murmured in her direction, still studying Ania intently. Her eyes were trained on the white walls blotted with a navy blue where the paint rollers had left their mark. She focused on the black carpet, the pristine ceiling, anywhere but my eyes. It struck me odd that she thought herself a monster despite her confidence and intimidating voice. At least I couldn't think of any other reason as to why she would avoid me.

"Anguish," Achos purred. When I cast a look her way, her fiery curls were split into loose pigtails, her flat blacks divided down the middle with a feline slit, milky yellow, freckles dotting her nose. I may have cured my lip at her sudden appearance by the way she grinned, long canines still incredible in length, glossy and white. "She may have worked her magic on some friends of yours."

I twisted to look at Ania, still staring openly at the wall, fingers twisting through dark waves. "Annabeth…"

"Oh, gods, no," Ania sneered, her hand dropping to the table and shaking the centerpiece—a stooping bowl with clear water and lily pads swarming the surface. "That was completely your doing and I refuse blame on my shoulders. My hands are washed clean."

I hesitated, processing her diction. "Then who?"

"Silena," Lupè shrugged, "Charlie. Two of my personal favorite cases."

I gaped openly at her, the light attitude of her admitting something so casually. "Wha—You three are the reason we lost so many people."

"It was their time," Ania amended, her thick voice defensive. "As Lupè has probably said before me, we've never had an actual influential leader—"

"Master," Lupè voiced.

Ania never skipped a beat. "We do as our own wont; however we fall under influence of Hades from time to time. When one's time comes, we follow our sense of duty."

"_Ania's_ sense of duty," Achos purred, her warm breath against my ear. I almost turned to look upon her slit eyes, but the fear of meeting her face to face was—far beyond me—absolute. To be honest with myself, the sisters were intimidating more than I'd ever want to admit aloud. They were older and wiser, not necessarily more powerful, but had far less to lose than I, with my mortal friends still breathing, despite the separation of nearly a year between us.

That thought hit me hard. It hadn't really felt so long, being occupied by Hades' training course and performing certain duties that may or may not have shamed me before my becoming a godling, but a year without camp. No Chiron to guide me, no Grover for me to mess with or laugh at, no Clarisse to pound my face in—I'd never have guessed I'd miss her so terribly, and more importantly, no Annabeth. No blonde girls that clouded my view when she knocked me to the ground and held her knife to my throat with the same witty smirk as ever. No grey eyes when she'd watch me with amusement as I'd make some lame attempt at archery. No fingers to curl the ends of her hair when she was nervous or to knock my shoulder viciously when I said something dumb.

No damned Annabeth.

And I was exhausted with longing to have a friend, to have her.

I couldn't remember if I'd answered them, or even what they had said. Something about my friends. I dove through the process of thinking of what led to Annabeth occupying my mind.

"Hey, boss," I half expected to see a charcoal snout reaching out to me, but was left with the disappointment that was the too-close view of Lupè. I had to remind myself that we had shimmered down from _Master_ to _Milord_ to _Oh Great Overseer_ to simply put _Boss_. "I wanna go somewhere."

I ran my hand across my face. "Where, Lupè? Where could you possibly want to go?"

She grinned. "Let's go wreak some havoc on that camp of yours."

She reached out for my hand, hesitated for a fraction of a second, turned to her sisters wickedly. They all reflected some form of excitement, Lupè's being more of her overused enthusiasm, Achos' a ominous and almost sexy appeal to the idea, hair falling on a whim, and Ania with the barest trace of bemusement flitting behind her lashes and a small smile. Nothing more.

"What?" And before I could protest further, Lupè winked at me and we were being carried away in a film of black sand caught on a rippling air current, being swept from my 'palace' under construction—the one that I didn't particularly enjoy.

I could faintly hear the enthusiast's giggles all around me matched evenly with a pale purr, a stubborn 'Humph' undoubtedly from Ania. Their voices mingled in the gust of wind and then there was nothing. Unreserved silence in the midst of a pause so pregnant and loud that my heartbeat was pounding in my ears, my breathing heavy in my throat.

And everything rushed at me until I was standing amongst the three girls down by the lake.

"We're not supposed to be here," I murmured, my voice having not returned to me yet. Seeing my old home, the grounds were I had been trained to what some saw as my fullest potential, my knees were knobby and weak with exhaustion and regret. I wanted to cry, I was so happy.

"Of course we are," Lupè grinned. "This is our job."

"We can't interfere directly."

"Well, _you_ can't, but we need a supervisor. Don't worry; it won't be anything serious." Lupè's assurance hadn't calmed me in the least, but she took off with her sisters in tow before I could say a word.

I figured I had to follow them, because Lupè had been right: they need a supervisor.

They started out by the lake, the water reflecting the high sun and the surface speckled with canoes manned by a few demigods each. There were more out on the lake then I remembered when I had been attending camp, but I hardly cast it a thought. Achos glanced over her shoulder at me and purred again in the back of her throat, snapped her fingers, and the fun began.

It was almost immediate when a wave tossed a canoe around gently, more of a caress or endearing nudge, and the campers seemed to deem it as unimportant. One look at Achos made my stomach churn uneasily. She was having some stare down with the lake, enticing eyes, head tilted to watch through lashes. Her finger was swaying back and forth, ebbing and flowing with the current. She jolted and the wave picked up, turning a canoe upside down with the campers inside, and she laughed as their heads bobbed up and down.

Lupè took her turn easily and bobbed her head like a genie, one camper crying out something unintelligible. Lupè seemed to glow for a brief moment and looked to Achos. "Leg cramp."

Ania, all the while, shrunk back to stand beside me, but I had a hard time looking away from the chaos these girls were stirring up; I felt her eyes on me. "You know this is wrong." I ignored her; I wasn't allowed to interfere. "Why do you sit and watch, while my idiot sisters torment them?"

"What am I supposed to do?" I was the new guy on Olympus; I had no place giving orders. Even when I was on top, I felt so down low, afraid that I'd lead my army to their deaths. I knew that Lupè would listen, and there was a high chance that Achos would follow but it wouldn't settle in my stomach that I was in charge of three immortals.

"You tell them to stop," she shrugged. "You let them run over you and you lose control. You have to be stern, even if you are only a _boy_."

I shook my head because I knew what she meant. I was only a kid, but I needed to stop being a pushover. I had to set my foot down firm and maybe loosen up over a couple hundred years. "Why don't you say something?" Wow, how leader-hardy am I?

She laughed, a sound I was almost certain I hadn't heard before. "_Me?_ Please, I am only a second-in-command. I follow your orders now, not my own."

It was my turn to snort out a chuckle. "Since when do you listen to me?" It was a fair question. One time I had told her to get my father on an IM or have her call up George and Martha and leave Hermes a message; I had even given her one of my own drachmas, not sure if I'd still need it. She looked me up and down, took the drachma, tossed it over her shoulder, and told me to do it myself, that I was being lazy. Then she turned, walked down the hall, and began supervising some harpies at work, measuring and jotting down numbers for the office she wanted to have in my home.

"Fine," she turned away from me. "I will do as you wish; pleased?"

"Very," I grinned. Now I had a voice on the inside; Ania would relay any message I wanted if ever there was a time I was too nervous or shy to say anything. She called to them, told them that almost drowning heroes was against the Ancient Laws, that they could only perform minimal damage like bee stings and such. That set off a horde of new problems as the two crafted a bee hive, set it on the doorstep of a cabin—Ares, forgive me—and waited. It was my type of luck for Clarisse to be the camper heading out first for lunch, with her siblings close behind. She stepped and instantly screamed as a crowd of little nasty bees swarmed around her. She took off running, and I realized that this may have been her biggest fear, the one her immortal brother had shown her.

"Okay," I pursed my lips. "Moving on."

Lupè shook her head. "Boss, you're not allowed to do anything here."

I cast a look at Ania and she nodded her head. I sucked in an awkward breath and thought of one person I was unfortunately setting as my role model—Mr. D. "Are you limiting me?"

Lupè blinked at my tone and swallowed her pride. Her face, young and hopeful, fell to the floor awkwardly. "No, sir."

And I cracked. The way she reacted… I couldn't be that kind of person even if I wanted to be. "I wasn't going to get involved, Lupè. I was just… how about you three go mess with the Hermes cabin. Plenty of victims there."

Instant medicine was offering the sisters victims to toy with. Ania shook her head at me but took the tail as Lupè scrambled away with a wide smile and Achos sauntered like a child of Aphrodite herself would. I cursed in my head but followed.

My mind was back to old memories of the place, games of Capture the Flag, dinners and sing-along, campfires, fireworks lighting up the sky on the fourth of July. That only pulled me back to my date with Annabeth on my fourth summer after having fought of giant ants for a dragon head that Beckendorf had drooled over. We had lost Capture the Flag that night but Annabeth had asked me on a date and that was the day Silena and Charlie got together.

I bumped into a halted Achos, and I caught a sly grin slip on her face, her red curls now dropped freely, the yellow slits in her eyes gone again. Lupè and Ania were standing only a few inches ahead of her, and I peeled my body from hers awkwardly, skirting around the girls and peeking at what had stopped them. It was a crowd of new demigods gathered for a tour of camp at the base of Half-Blood Hill.

Chiron stood before them, their eyes wide as saucers, their jaws slack and swiveling with their body as they took in his lower body, a white stallion. He was saying something that I wasn't paying much attention to, and before I could stop myself, I was tumbling down the hill and hugging him tight, hoping for some reality check.

"Percy?" His voice, I could tell, was disappointed and pleased and mixed with so many different emotions that I was afraid to let go. I pushed myself away from him, knowing I'd just looked like a loser in front of the new heroes, but not really caring. "Percy, my boy, you're back. Why?"

"I know I shouldn't be," I tried but I didn't have anything much to say to him, other than that he was a sight for sore eyes and if I ever had to look on a dying body again I would go insane, but I kept my mouth shut and looked over at the new crowd, all around twelve or thirteen. "Hey."

Some beefy looking boys and girls were studying me with a hard glare, trying to tear me down with their eyes. Definitely an Ares trait. I could recognize each god and goddess in the teens, some Athenians, others from Demeter, a Hephaestus squirt here and there, one belonging to Dionysus.

"Ah, heroes," Chiron said, voice tarnished with amusement at their hard glares like they couldn't believe I'd had the nerve of interrupting them. "This is Percy Jackson, one of my former students."

Lupè took chance to pitch in, her face contorted with a cruel smile, a certain pride to her. "God of pain and suffering. Son of Poseidon."

"Lupè," I chided, feeling odd with my position. She bowed her head with the same smile and muttered and apology.

Chiron looked down at me, asked me how I was doing, asked me why I was at camp. I told him about the mission the Algea had set out on, how they had assured me that it was perfectly fine to mess with campers head's so long as I had no part. I told him about the Clarisse accident, and then I found myself talking about my year, calmer than most. Retelling my story, everything seemed to have slowed considerably compared to demigod years, unlike how I thought life would be. I knew that the pace would pick back up, but I couldn't understand why being a god gave me so much more free time, my own agenda. It felt so wrong and out of place.

"Well," Chiron smiled at me. "I hope the gods are treating you well, but I really must be heading off to my archery class. I assume you won't be seriously injuring my campers. Tonight is Capture the Flag if you would like to stay and observe, but I must inform you that visits cannot be frequent or Zeus would have my head."

I told him I understood and that it wouldn't happen again without invitation and dismissed my group with a small wave to the new kids, who didn't share the enthusiasm by the way they cringed away from me. I brushed it off as they had caught Achos' eyes, though the back of my mind said otherwise.

"Oh, excuse me," Ania turned back to Chiron who had just started his departure towards the archery arena. "Where would we find Athena's children?"

Chiron's irritated smile was answer enough as he took off towards his scheduled class.

When we were far enough down the hill I felt my fists clenching uncomfortably and I told them that we were leaving through clenched teeth. I wasn't sure why that had bothered me, but I really didn't want to see Annabeth again until I had this whole power thing figured out.

**A/N: Ugh. I hate this chapter, too. It's not how I planned it at all but I knew I needed to update sooner rather than later. I may go back and fix everything to better it later.**


	11. Mortally Wounded

**Hey y'all. To those reading my other stories, I did skip around on my list of things-to-be-updated because I either:**

**Had a serious case of writer's block**

**Had a lack of reviewers  
OR**

**Had a very, very serious case of writer's block**

**If you have suggestions (so **_**yes**_**, check out my other stories) please be unafraid of sending something in for me to work on. If you actually read this, please put the word **_**Enchilada**_** somewhere in your review—if you do happen to review. Which I would appreciate.**

**Amen.**

**Enter stage left of my mind…**

Six months.

They had passed, quite fleetingly to my dismay, since I had visited the campgrounds. Six months of Ania constantly arguing with the harpies about measurements and the placement of her desk—which unfortunately signaled that I would _not_ be gaining a bedroom anytime soon—and they could never find a way to please her. Six months of staring vacantly at crying faces, blank expressions, hurting souls being torn from themselves and dropping them off at Charon's studio. Six months of muscle-tiring, sweat-producing strength exercises that involved me feeling oddly like Luke Skywalker from the old Star Wars movies with a little green man hunched over on my shoulders.

Six months that led me to my breaking point.

"That's it," I cried, fingers clenched in my damped hair, sweat beaded on my forehead. "I can't take this. If I have to transport one more of your _stupid_ bookshelves—"

"Excuse me!" Ania sneered. "They are not stupid just because you cannot find a use for them!"

"You don't even have _books_ on them," I growled, whirling towards her in the middle of the only accomplished room in the stupid palace on the stupid phantom island. It was a cylinder with a cone roof, the walls a damped blue brick that glowed eerily, the floor slick black glass. The bricks would often shift around each other and slide psychedelically, candles flickering atop the stone that jutted out softly. The air was thick and cloudy, incense burning through the fog. The only thing that kept us connected to the mortal world was the glossy crystal ceiling that would display the area around us like a tile mosaic, illuminated by the outer sky, giving fair vantage over visitors and allowed us to be aware of where the home had decided to sprout its roots from. Despite the bright white light from the sun, simmering through the ceiling, the room stayed dark and dank for concentration while Ania made constant attempts to train me.

The ceiling was dappled gray with water specks flecked across the glass, the clear image of an island in Florida radiant and glowing with faded tiles.

A knock echoed through the room and Ania muttered something that granted access to the room. Lupè sunk through the wall with the same glimmering smile plastered on, a stack of paper in her arms. She shuffled the packet in her hands and looked over at me. "So, we've had eighteen fatal car accidents in the past week, nineteen house fire deaths," she paused to read some more, "thirty attempts of suicide—wow, these kids need more sunshine in their diets."

"Right next to eating glitter and paste," Achos purred from somewhere behind me. I had gotten past the flipping out and turning to find her somehow beside me, but that couldn't keep my spine from going pin straight and my blood from running cold.

I couldn't let my mind shift to all of the tragedy that had occurred. It didn't sit right in the pit of my stomach—all of this madness reigning across the globe just for me to handle. "Anymore from human trafficking?"

"Oh," she studied the list, which suddenly seemed demonically thick, nearly one hundred sheets of paperwork just from the last week, each listing deaths from a different cause, names cataloged carefully for Hades to deal with. "Yeah, human trafficking came to a minimal halt for the time being. It seems the cops caught up with a pretty decent sized group that had been causing us some problems; but no sweat, it'll pick up again, boss."

"That's what I'm worried about."

The girls didn't have much to say in response, and it bothered me. They had become so accustomed to this idea of tragedy striking so rapidly. I hadn't really realized that so much was wrong with our world like I had currently; people were dying, crying, lying, whimpering, wishing for some sort of sun to blaze on their barren, empty lives. I made note that I had to get this to pull out some sort of emotion in the Algea.

"Anything else, Lupè?"

"Well, boss," I also noted how much I missed Blackjack, who was nestled in his stable at Camp Half-Blood with no rider but Annabeth, or so I'd been told. He was a stubborn Pegasus. "It's just that… you see, there's this quest…"

"And?"

"Well, your girlfriend's supposed to be going with the group," Lupè shrugged quietly. "We could go talk her out of it. You know, if you want us to."

Achos didn't seem too set on the idea, a disappointed grimace at the mention of _girlfriend_, but she was enthusiastic to get out of this hell-hole, that much was obvious on her beautiful, ever-changing mask. Ania didn't look like she planned to lift a petite finger in the direction of helping Annabeth with any problem or inconvenience unless I forced her—which may or may not be counted as direct interference. I just took into consideration the fact that Zeus and Hades had both made attempts on my life before, and it wasn't like Annabeth was my daughter or anything. I asked Lupè for the details on the quest, to which she had no information except that it was a favor for one of Aphrodite's children, which tipped the scale on uncomfortable in the pit of my stomach.

"Just," I didn't honestly have much to say in response to that, but I knew I had to say something before they went rouge and did as they pleased. I had about ten seconds of command before that would happen. "Check in; keep an eye open and get some details. Report back here when you've found something."

There was an annoying buzzing in my ears, low and quiet, like a bee floating at my side.

"Achos," I gave her a pointed look. "You've got some business off on the West coast, San Fran maybe. Go look into that."

She did as was routine for her, put her delicate, supple hands on my shoulders, and pressed her lips to my cheek softly, giving me one of those looks that I was soon figuring out was probably the way she looked at any male specimen, then dispersed in a fragrant cloud. I waited until I was sure I could breathe again and shooed Lupè away to tend to my will, which she did with—of course—enthusiasm.

"And me?" I had to turn and remember that Ania was standing in the room with the rest of us, breathing, grimacing, doing the thing that Ania's did best and just acting pissed off at everyone for everything. I knew we weren't going to progress much further past the strangle-each-other phase, but a little smile once in a while wasn't really too much to ask.

"Um," I bite my lip. What was I supposed to have her do? Lupè was doing as I asked; Achos was tending to her responsibilities, and Ania? "I guess you could…"

"I will deliver the souls to Charon, yes?"

"I… guess." In truth, I wasn't sure I wanted her torturing the souls any further. She would do well in the protection detail, but if they pestered her enough we would have liability issues and all Hades would break lose between deities, and I personally didn't want to deal with Hades sending anymore torturers after me. Ania would beat the crap out of the innocent, rather scatterbrained dead.

She turned to melt from the room, collect the souls gathering in one room or another, when I stopped her, made her promise to be nice. She obliged grudgingly, but I took what I could get. I busied myself with my sword, putting its cap on while making my move to follow her out, slipping the tool in my back pocket.

"And Percy?" I looked up to her. "Annabeth… she won't be around forever."

I thought of days that would pass even more without her around. Because I knew that being a mortal, she wouldn't last forever. One day she would come to the end of the line, her cord would be cut by the Fates, she would slip to eternal rest—hopefully peacefully and of old age—and I wouldn't get to see her face for all of my eternity. Her soft features, battle-hardened and sun-kissed, grey and gold a crown along her brow, her mischievous and calculating grey eyes. All gone one day. It didn't seem real now, but it was planted in the back of my mind. I would lose my Wise Girl to Hades, to Elysium. I was just praying it wouldn't come soon.

"Yeah, I know."

"So why do you waste your time on her?"

Now, I was pissed.

"Waste my time? I've got all eternity; I'm willing to share it with her."

"But you two are mere children. Others will come. You risk my sisters and your position on keeping her from getting a scratch on her filthy paws—"

"Hey now—"

"And for what? To watch her vanish? She is temporary, Percy. She will _not_ last forever, you know that."

"And you have a better idea?"

And she kissed me.

Which left me wondering if she had reminded me of Annabeth's mortality for my visiting her more often or to let her live on without me.

**A/N: And scene. Sorry it's so short.**


	12. Pacify

**Alright, so. Reviews—thanks so much for them! They mean a lot.**

**Next order of business. I'm going to buckle down, go back, and rewrite all of (or a large majority of) these chapters. I'm going to leave this posted, but eventually there will be a remake—something completely original with this whole 'godly' business. Main character will be traded out since people don't quite like the AU version with Percy playing this role… maybe. Unless I decide otherwise.**

**I give you my pacifier chapter! (Meaning, just to feed you until the real thing is produced.)**

Enjoyable, I guess.

No internal, deep emotional stirring of any sort. No sudden bright light flashing around her that screamed 'soul mate' or anything that let on I even had an inkling of attraction to her, for her, whatever. There was no awakening in the pit of my soul, no great desire, just enjoyment.

Which meant all but one thing: she was inexperienced.

In fact, I was willing to bet that Ania had more experience in this subject than Aphrodite herself, that she-devil that toyed with my love life on a daily basis.

I'm a guy and couldn't help but find a serious pleasure in her lips pressed firmly to mine, and so naturally I didn't push her away. In fact, with all the shame I could muster, I'll admit to pulling her back to me when she did make an attempt at walking away. She was probably going for a dramatic exit, something that would have left me dumbfounded, confused, and ultimately cranky as Hades after sitting in the Underworld for three thousand years. I was just so amazing at crushing people's plans and bending their will to fight my more impulsive one.

Yeah, and Lupè making her sudden reappearance, one hand raised and her mouth wide open to let words fly towards me, didn't necessarily help my mood. She was the only reason I realized what actually had been going on and why I currently hated myself utterly.

Was it possible for gods to kill themselves?

I didn't think so.

While I was mid-rant filled with self-loathing and the putrid smell of guilt I let two of the three girls talk at me. I was beyond pissed with myself, to the point of every little thing someone did irking me beyond the natural boundaries. Lupè must have sensed it, while Achos' radar was slightly off mark. She was sitting on the arm of my chair, twisting one strand of hair around her finger, blabbing on and on. Lupè on the other hand had a constantly faltering smile on her fragile face, like she was deeply afraid that I would find some sudden burst of energy and smite her so that she could keep coming back and we'd repeat the process. I felt bad that somehow I had managed to induce the feeling of apprehension but too many things were clouding my better judgment.

Return to camp; remind my immortal soul of Annabeth.

Stop the feeling of Ania's lips on mine.

Hire a psychiatrist (I wondered if Hades knew anyone worth suggesting).

The death toll.

Souls piling up on my doorstep, awaiting their ascent to the afterlife.

And of course, the crappy quest that an Aphrodite brat was sending my girlfriend on.

I couldn't—wouldn't deal with this life anymore. What could Zeus really do if I broke the Ancient Laws that shouldn't have even applied to me, considering 'ancient' wasn't exactly a word to describe me? Would he strike me a couple hundred times with a lightning bolt? Ooh, terrifying.

Maybe he would curse my children. Wow, wouldn't that suck? Cursed kids when I'm still as innocent as any young child? I'd never… made love to anyone before, therefore that option seemed pretty easy to deal with.

Or even better, he would renounce my curse of Achilles—could he even do that? I seriously doubted it.

Nothing seemed heavy enough to hold me back.

So with Lupè's jaw still rotating with every word she said, and Achos still purring seductively in my ear like maybe she could get a chance at a kiss just as her sister had, I excused myself with a cloud of wispy ashes fluttering where I had been.

And with no time wasted on trivial matters such as further thinking through my priorities, I was bounding down Half-Blood Hill, passed Thalia's pine, and down towards the campers still milling around, heading to different training sites and such. I reached to grab a free arm and stopped myself, reminding myself that sometimes my excitement pulled matters from my grasp and powers worked willy-nilly. A camper lying on the grass, eyes rolled back in their heads, probably wouldn't be the greatest way to start my trip to camp.

"Hey," I tried. Rather than physical contact, I managed to entice attention with mere words.

I had to remember to pat myself on the back for not making a bonehead move and killing off a demigod.

"Yeah?" He turned, tumbling red curls brushing the tips of his ears. I knew I had seen his face before but I was drawing a blank on the name, which made me feel like I had just lowered myself to the level of Mr. D, not bothering to remember mortal names. Six months and I had managed to turn into the stereotypical god.

Fantastic.

"Where's—" without hesitation, I was being side tackled and me and Mystery Man went tumbling a little ways down the grass. I had a minimum of five seconds to pump air into my lungs when a similar looking boy was dog-piling on top of us, laughing like nobody's business.

"Percy, man," Travis—maybe Connor—grinned down at me. "It's been a while!"

"Yeah, six months," the other grumbled in agreement, both arms wrapped around us with a smirk to match. "What makes a god's life so interesting? You been seeing some _lady friends_?" He waggled his eyebrows and Travis responded with obnoxious laughter.

"_Dude_, it could happen," which may have been in response to the look on my face. "Annabeth's got a cabin for you going underway and _everything_."

I tried to keep a steely tone from underlining my words as I shoved them off, pleasantly surprised that they actually weren't contorted with any form of discomfort or pain. "Speaking of Annabeth…"

"Oh," I wasn't sure why but Travis sounded incredibly disappointed that I brought up my girlfriend—at least, she would be my girlfriend until she found out about what went down between me and Ania.

"Figures," Connor huffed. "We were kinda hoping you're godly abilities could come in handy with a prank we were working on."

"But, first things first. She's overseeing construction."

I'd like to say we hit it off as soon as we saw each other—I pulled her into a hug, she told me all the things that I'd missed, and then we ended up relaxing under the pine or lounging on the sandy shoreline.

Honestly, I walked up beside her as she stared at a blue fold of paper in her hand then compared the actual thing with the model, silent and admiring. Gold curls were pulled back into a lazy ponytail and she was constantly pushing back loose strands, yelling something at a demigod with a hard hat smacked on his head. He grinned when he saw me and turned back to the crew of builders, going over to someone who was apparently messing up. She glanced over her shoulder at me, stared for a max of five seconds and began rolling her scroll up—almost as tight as when we had an argument and she'd called me a coward right before I bathed in the Styx. This time she spared the paper and didn't rip it.

I followed as she walked further into the construction site that was supposedly going to become my cabin—it resembled fresh ruins, wooden supports standing bare, glaring at me like I had done something wrong. Cement had been laid only so marvelously on the floor in gritty slabs.

"How do you like it?" I couldn't help but note that she was sneering at me.

"Uh…"

"Though so," and then she growled. Nothing noticeable if I hadn't been focusing on every _freaking_ move she made. She didn't appear the least bit concerned with putting on a hard hat, and I hoped that was because she trusted me to protect her from any misadventure that went down. Something nagged, whispering that the reasoning was slightly different.

"Well, I came by—"

"I think we should break up."

So, yeah. That's kind of how things went down.

Annabeth, with six months to think, had come to the realization that my being a god would entitle me to finding some way of having my way with her—which had me blushing to the roots of my hair because it was near impossible to be comfortable talking about this—and then leaving. That I would move on the very moment she breathed her last—which I swore could never happen—and that I would prove myself to be the same as every other god.

And when I tried to point out that my dad had managed to fall in love, she gave me a look like she wasn't buying it. She was the fling, not the girl that would get me to change my six months of being influenced by pigs like Hades and Apollo.

She was scared.

That I would leave her, that I wouldn't be the exception, that I wouldn't be there for her if anything were to ever happen between us. She never said it, but I didn't doubt for a second.

Doesn't mean I ever left. You could say I stalked her, half of my consciousness hovering in the shadows, checking in on her with a careful gaze.

(I'll have you know that she never really did just move on—guys did come, but she never let them have a shot with her and that swelled my head to enormous amounts; that meant I was special to her, even still.)

I wasn't sure she noticed me, but there were days when she'd stare up at the sky like maybe she could hold back tears—not ones always meant for me—and then grin and whisper my name, like the taste could bring me back.

But I stood in the background; I watched and waited for my chance.

I'm still waiting.

**Incredibly crappy and rushed, but this isn't the final product. I wasn't willing to give this my all since I'm just going to rewrite it and take this down. Uh… Review, I guess.**


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